10/31/08

Five people charged with participation in a 'organised criminal group'


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Source

The Crown has issued an indictment today against 18 people arrested in the police raids of October 15th 2007 in Ruatoki, Auckland, Hamilton, Whakatane, Palmerston North, Wellington and elsewhere.

Five of the 18 people have been charged with participation in a criminal gang under section 98A of the Crimes Act.

These charges are a desperate attempt by the Government to save face after the Solicitor-General found ‘insufficient evidence’ to bring charges under the Terrorism Suppression Act. The Crown seeks to characterise political activists who support Tino Rangatiratanga and dissent from the Government as criminals.

All 18 face charges under the Arms Act for possession of weapons and restricted weapons (Molotov cocktails). Although charges relating to 3 of the alleged ‘camps’ had been dismissed outright by Judge Mark Perkins due to lack of evidence following a month long depositions hearing, the Crown has also chosen to re-instate these charges.

The raids and arrests continue a legacy of the brutal invasions of Parihaka, Maungapohatu, Takaparawha and Pakaitore. This is part of a systematic attack on Maori communities. The Government’s support of the ‘war on terrorism’ in the passage of a raft of anti-terrorism laws and expanded police and Security Intelligence Service budgets confirm their agenda to control the population through surveillence and brutal repression of any genuine dissent. [ More ]

"Criminal gang" charges ludicrous (Global Peace and Justice Auckland) | www.October15thSolidarity.info | Aocafe

10/27/08

Free Lex Wotton NOW

Lex Wotton.jpg
Last Friday an all white jury found Lex Wotton, an Aboriginal man from Palm Island, guilty of 'rioting with destruction' for his involvement in the 2004 Palm Island uprising. On November 26th 2004 the people of Palm Island set fire to the local police station, court house and police barracks after a pathologist's report claimed that the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee, a 36 year old local, in police custody a week earlier was an 'accident'. Mulrunji died in a police cell, one hour after he had been arrested for being drunk. He suffered massive internal injuries, including a ruptured spleen, four broken ribs and a 'liver that had been 'almost cleaved in two' from a huge compressive force.'

The officer who arrested him, Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, claimed that Mulrunji had fallen on stairs. A coroner's inquest found that Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley was responsible for Mulrunji's death, as the injuries were consistent with a beating. However, a court found Hurley not guilty for manslaughter. He has since been promoted and is an Inspector on the Gold Coast.

In comparison Lex Wotton is now facing a life sentence in prison. He is being held in prison until his next court appearance in the Townsville District Court on November 7.

10/23/08

Targeted redundancies at Victoria University: How the Vice-Chancellor abused due process

Dr James Doughney, elected academic representative on Victoria University Council and Resources Committee

22 October 2008

1. Introduction

The first point to note is that the redundancy plan (table 1) derives from a secret process. The accounting firm Ernst and Young worked with tight group of senior managers. Excluded from the process were most senior managers (Pro-Vice Chancellor and above) and all Deans and Heads of School.
Similarly, the Resources Committee of University Council was not informed until Friday morning 17 October 2008 that the process was (a) under way and had been for some time or (b) of its magnitude (section 2).
Moreover neither VC Elizabeth Harman nor DVC John Hickman explained that they had brought to account unapproved capital-spending to conjure a cash-position crisis (section 5). This raises serious concerns about contravention of Victoria University policy (POP070803000 Capital Works Projects).
Indicative budgets might model the effects of provisional and investigative projects. However, it is quite a serious breach of process to bring such projects to account for immediate action – i.e. to justify issuing redundancy notices as early as mid November. Note also:

1.    Resources Committee did not vote on any budget proposal or the redundancy plan at its meeting of 17 October
2.    Resources Committee will not vote on budgets until 28 November
3.    Council will not vote on budgets until 8 December

The redundancy plan pre-empts official University decision-making processes. The decision immediately to target an underlying surplus of five per cent of revenue pre-empts official decision-making processes. The official position remains that University officers are obliged to implement the existing budget, namely the Victoria University 2008 Budget.


Table 1
Category    Net job losses    Notional ‘savings’ in 2010
HE academic staff     150    $16.5 million
General staff    100    $8.5
TAFE    20 now
20 in 2010    $2-$4.0 million
Total    290    $27.0 to $29.0 million



2. Magnitude: largest ever job cuts by an Australian university

For the dollar estimates to correspond to the net job losses, the losses must be full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs. Hence, in percentage terms the losses proposed are:

Table 2
    Total 2007 (DEEWR)    Total job losses    Per cent job losses
HE academic staff    579    150    25.9
General staff    579    100    17.3
Sub total    1,158    250    21.6
TAFE teaching staff    377    40    10.6
Total    2,693    540    20.1


3. Note the term ‘net’ job losses: actual job cuts will be greater

In a document given to VU Resources Committee on 17 October, ‘2008 plan for a sustainable VU’ (see University intranet), the following statement appears:

Net salary savings in HE in the order of $16.5 million through a well designed program of redundancies that is aligned to a focus on courses and units that have market appeal. New staff will be recruited to support courses with strong market appeal and research, and hence savings must reflect a net amount. (p. 5)

4. Summary of VU indicative budgets

As presented to Resources Committee 17 October 2008, the indicative 2009 budgets for discussion may be summarised as below (tables 3 and 4).

Table 3
    2007
actual    2008
forecast    2009    2010    2011    2012    2013
Revenue    348,104    372,601    382,433    392,888    416,250    426,329    449,649
Expenses                           
Employee benefits    215,761    238,801    252,291    262,383    267,532    277,922    289,039
Leave (accrual)    679    1,400    1,456    1,500    1,545    1,591    1,639
Buildings and grounds (capital     accrual)    33,213    29,642    32,195    37,577    45,012    45,511    46,027
Other    79,134    88,553    93,292    95,370    98,231    101,178    104,213
Total expenses    328,787    358,396    379,234    396,830    412,320    426,202    440,918
Net operating result    19,317    14,205    3,199    -3,942    3,930    127    8,731
Less capital income        18,738    14,142    18,000    20,000    7,000    7,000
Recurrent position        -4,533    -10,943    -21,942    -16,070    -6,873    1,731


The VC and DVC (Capital and Management) state that this ‘indicative budget’ is ‘unworkable’. Their reasons were:

1.    General sustainability (a point that the NTEU has been making for some time)
2.    Specifically to create surpluses (VU internal funds) to spend on infrastructure
3.    Above budget’s impact on cash (related to 2)

Table 4
Current assets                            
Cash and cash equivalents    91,379    98,527    31,539    -42,470    -58,751    -37,414    -7,472
Other    25,568    23,181    18,836    19,229    19,632    20,042    20,461
Total current assets    116,947    121,708    50,375    -23,241    -39,119    -17,372    12,989
Non current assets                            
Financial assets    1,867    2,017    2,017    2,017    2,017    2,017    2,017
Property, plant and equipment    567,332    576,542    653,106    724,700    746,482    726,801    707,259
Other    93,055    93,055    93,055    93,075    93,095    93,115    93,136
Total non-current assets    662,254    671,614    748,178    819,792    841,594    821,933    802,412
Total assets    779,201    793,322    798,553    796,551    802,475    804,561    815,401
Current liabilities                            
Provisions    43,278    43,278    43,278    43,278    43,278    43,278    43,278
Other    22,223    20,745    21,326    21,772    22,227    22,691    23,165
Total current liabilities    65,501    64,023    64,604    65,050    65,505    65,969    66,443
Non-current liabilities                            
Provisions    97,682    99,082    100,538    102,038    103,582    105,173    106,812
Other    70    64    58    52    46    40    34
Total non-current liabilities    97,752    99,146    100,596    102,090    103,628    105,213    106,846
Total liabilities    163,253    163,169    165,200    167,140    169,133    171,182    173,289
Net assets    615,948    630,153    633,353    629,411    633,342    633,379    642,112
Change in net assets (operating result)        14,205    3,200    -3,942    3,931    37    8,733


The emphasis was and remains on items 2 and 3. This is what presumably explains the urgency and, until 17 October, the secrecy. The VC’s email to staff confirms this view:

While the University has been consistently returning a surplus each year, we need to rebalance our budget to find an additional $30m or thereabouts in 2009 if we are going to have the means to invest in new facilities, infrastructure and services to meet the growth demands of the western region of Melbourne. (Harman, 17 October 2008)

5. VU capital budget and infrastructure plans

By not explaining that they had included unapproved capital projects in their calculations, the VC and DVC misled Resources Committee on 17 October. Data in the fine print of the indicative budget, however, exposes the pea and thimble trick in two ways. The indicative budget:

1.    Brings into the accounts capital spending projects that have not been through the approval process that University Council stipulates
2.    Brings forward to 2009 capital expenditures that had been approved for later years

The effect is to manufacture a ‘cash-position crisis’. The following table makes this clear. Note that the shaded cell (approximately $28.5 million) is close to the amount of savings via redundancy proposed for 2010 (see table 1 above).

Table 5
        2008    2009    2010    2011
Total projects brought into indicative budget    1    25,038    91,966    97,658    43,850
Total approved projects (A-list)    2    22,338    64,198    54,203    2,250
Total unapproved/brought forward projects added into the accounts (P- and I-list)    1-2
3    2,700    27,768    43,455    41,600
Specific government funding of unapproved projects    4    300    7,900    15,000    20,000
Internal VU funding of unapproved projects    3-4
5    2,400    19,868    28,455    21,600


Note also that, if we take the unapproved capital projects out of the indicative budget, we arrive at a similar 2010 cash position to that suggested by management in its power point presentations re the redundancies (table 6).

Table 6
    $000
Cash reserves in indicative budget for 2010    -42,470
Unapproved capital spending projects    28,455
Cash reserves in indicative budget for 2010 without unapproved capital spending projects    -14,015
    $m
Salary savings from redundancy proposed in management documents    27.0
Indicative budget cash position 2010    -42.5
Revised budget cash position 2010    -15.5


It is important to emphasise that only A-list projects have ‘approved’ status. I-list projects are merely under investigation. P-list projects have provisional approval. However, provisional approval has a very specific meaning. It is contained in the following policy statement:

From time to time, but at least annually, management will present to Council, through the Resources Committee a draft List P for endorsement. In most cases, these submissions to Resources Committee and Council will include a request for funding approval sufficient to undertake a detailed feasibility study which will test the project business case and provide accurate cost estimates. The feasibility study will provide the information necessary to support a future List A submission. (POP070803000 Capital Works Projects, 6.2)

    In plain English P-list projects have not passed the ‘feasibility study’, ‘project business case’ and ‘accurate cost estimate’ requirements Resources Committee and Council insists upon. They are not approved projects but are merely provisional.
In the light of this University’s notorious fraud cases, such rigorous procedures are essential.
Meanwhile, it is reasonable to conclude that management have conceived the redundancies to fund an immediate (2010) but manufactured cash ‘crisis’. Beyond 2009-10 they will fund ongoing capital programmes through internal VU cash contributions. This is the meaning of management’s proposal that the University immediately generate a five per cent underlying surplus.

6. Accountability

It is important for accountability, my own included, to note the following extract that will be included in the minutes of the 17 October Resources Committee meeting:

Dr J Doughney noted that the proposed staff cuts constitute the largest in the sector in Australian history, and advised that the University should institute an immediate employment freeze and halt progress of hubbing and campus change plans.  Dr Doughney expressed the view that Council, Resources Committee and senior management should take responsibility for the magnitude of the financial situation and that the executive management of the University should resign.

    Having now had more time to analyse the indicative budget discussed at the 17 October meeting, I must add to this view the following points:

1.    I feel that I have been misled in discharging my duties on Resources Committee (i.e. regarding accounting for unapproved capital projects)
2.    I believe that the capital-spending plans of the University need urgent review
3.    I have no confidence in any internal review, and hence I urge review by an independent external authority.

7. Conclusion

Item 3 immediately above must be seen in a much more worrying context. The University’s proposed hubbing and campus planning changes are not yet in the accounts. Roughly speaking, these project additional building costs for the University to 2016 of:

•    $427 million if our current student load does not increase to 2016
•    $830 million with a ‘modest’ increase in load
•    $1.25 billion with a ‘medium’ load increase

Campus planning decisions (e.g. closing Sunbury and Melton) arise contingently (but not necessarily) from hubbing. ‘Hubbing’ is the term for bringing like courses and activities together in key locations. Hubbing arises contingently from Making VU plans (e.g. clusters etc.). The full implications of decisions about Making VU, hubbing and campus planning are unknown (at least, with satisfactory rigour).
    What we do know is that hubbing, closing campuses and relocating load creates additional costs (e.g. the need for more buildings). Regardless of the merits or otherwise of concentrating our efforts, it is obvious that costs such as those above would require:


1.    Impossibly large expenditures for VU alone
2.    Massive federal and state funding
3.    Federal and state funding plus injections of VU surpluses and debt

Given the likelihood that 3 is the most probable scenario – though we still have no commitments from government at all – it is reasonable to conclude that management is playing a high-cost, high-risk game with the future of the University.

INTERNATIONAL INDIGENOUS SOLIDARITY GATHERING

Aboriginal Australia, the Pacific, Asia & Latin America

This Gathering is taking place on Wurundjeri land. We give our respects to the Wurundjeri elders, past and present.

The Gathering aims to build bridges connecting our struggles, and strengthen solidarity, friendship and collaborations between indigenous and non-indigenous grassroots organisations throughout various regions of the world, especially where multinational corporations and military interventions are severely impacting  on indigenous lands and.
 
 
Click on image for a larger version

flyermail.jpg
Thursday 23 - Sunday 26 October 2008

Welcome and Fire Ceremony

Thursday 23 October, 6pm - 9pm
CERES - Community Environment Park
Lee Street, East Brunswick, Melbourne

Guest speakers:

Mick Edwards,
Marisol Salinas,
Duchol Welcoming, Wurundjerri country
Robbie Thorpe starting Fire ceremony
Larry Walsh,
Shiralee Hood,
LizTurner

Food and entertainment

Public Meeting

Friday 24 October @

Vitorian Trades Hall, Chambers Room
Cnr Victoria St & Lygon St, Carlton, Melbourne

Guest speakers from

Papua New Guinea,
Bolivia,
Colombia,
Aotearoa
Free West Papua
Elders, leaders and representatives from Australian First Nations from
Northern Terrytory, S.A., NSW and Victorian First Nations.

International Indigenous Solidarity Party/Conference/Gathering
Saturday 25 & Sunday 26 October
(check program for more details www.latinlasnet.org/gathering/program.html)

from 10am All day at CERES Community Environment Park
Lee Street, East Brunswick
Plenaries, Discussions spaces, music, doco presentations, Party in the Park (CERES)

Elders, leaders, Activist and Aboriginals communities from Australasia and Latin America Attending to the Gathering:

Robbie Thorpe from the Krautungalung people of the Gunnai Nation - Victoria
Larry Walsh, Aboriginal Storyteller and Historian, a respected elder from Taungerong/Kulin Nation - Victoria
Barbara Shaw, resident of Mt Nancy Town Camp in Alice Springs, a prescribed area under the federal interventioninto NT Aboriginal communities.
Traditional Owners for the proposed nuclear waste dump site at Muckaty, NT
Dianne Stokes- a Traditional Owner of the Muckaty Land, NT
Mark Chungaloo-Muckaty Traditional owner living at Kalumpurpla community, NT
Gladys Brown- a Warumungu language interpreter and Muckaty Traditional owner from Kalumpurlpa community, NT
Mark Lane- Muckaty Traditional owner opposing the federal radioactive waste dump plan, NT
Jeanette Edwards- member of Lhere Artpepe Aboriginal Corporation, the Native Title holding body for Alice Springs.
Valerie Martin- Warlpiri language interpreter and community organiser, from Yuendumu community and
Kunoth town camp in Alice Springs.
Kevin Buzzacott- Uncle Kevin is an elder from the Arabunna nation in northern South Australia
Wayne Roderick Atkinson , Yorta -Yorta people (Victoria)
Marie Pewhairangi Te Kura Kaupapa Maori Aotearoa
Aunti Joy Murphy, Wurundjerri country - Victoria
Aunti Sue Charles Rankin, Kulin Nation
Shiralee Hood, Nyoongar Kurnai countries and born in Wurundjerri country - Victoria
Darren Bloomfield, a Traditional Owner of the Wiradjuri Nation
Ati Teepa Ngai Tuhoe, Aotearoa
Sina Brown-Davis, Ngati Whatua ki Kaipara
Sue Coleman-Haseldine; winner of the 2007 NRM Premiers Award and anti mining campaigner.
Wayne Haseldine, Ceduna cultural youth worker and conservation activist.
Mia & Jacinta Haseldine aged 15 & 16 are young kokatha women heavily involved in community activity.
Neville Chappy Williams, Uncle Chappy is a Wiradjuri Traditional Owner of Lake Cowal and the surrounding lands in central New South Wales
Jethro Tulin, Ipili, Papua New Guinea, Chief Executive Officer of the AKALI TANGE ASSOCIATION a Human Rights organization that deals with issues surrounding the Porgera mine in Enga province, Papua New Guinea.
Clive Porabou from Bougainville
Donny Roem, Free West Papua
Frederick Yawandare, Free West Papua
Eduarado Issa Flores, From Bolivia (National Coalition for the Defense of Workers Organisations, Water, Basic Services, Environment and Life)
Mery Moller de Salinas, from Bolivia (Leader of Indigeous and grassroots coalition in defence of Water).
Marcelo Chimbolema, CONAIE executive member, Indigenous Council of Ecuador
Gustavo Reyes, from CHILE, leader and grassroots activist from Indigenous and non-indigenous Coalition
"disturbing from the margin/exclude people"
Nelson Fonseca, Jaime Pinzon and Masio Armando Medina, From Colombia, Electric Servcie Union
Maria- Eugenia Guerrero, from CUBA, Sister of Antonio Guerrero one of the Cuban 5 freedom fighters political prisoners in USA.
and more in their way to Melbourne at CERES Environment Park, Lee St., East Brunswick...

-Images exhibition from Kokatha Mula custodians-

'NGALIGU MUNDA' - our land, Images from Kokatha Mula country.

Exhibiting Sat 25 & Sun 26 October: 10am -6pm
as part of the International Indigenous Solidarity Gathering
@ CERES in the MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION ROOM.

A rare and unique oppertunity to experience the beauty and culture of South Australia's Far West Mallee without
leaving Melbourne. This exhibition showcases the importance of country and culture through photography, art and film.

For generations Kokatha Mula custodians have cared for their pristine mallee woodlands, including rockholes, soaks and wildlife. The lands that cover the Yumbarra & Pureba Conservation parks and the Yellabinna Regional Reserve are ancient grounds for hunting, collecting bush medicine and upholding culture.

Presented by West Mallee Protection, an affiliate of Friends Of the Earth Australia.
www.kokathamula.auspics.org.au

Saturday October 25,

CERES, Lee St., East Brunswick:
From 10am - 6pm
Plenary/ discussions spaces (Gatherings), workshops, entertainment (music, movies, theatre), traditional food, stalls, Art exhibition.

7PM - PARTY - FIESTA -
The International Indigenous Solidarity Gathering Party,
Saturday 25 of October at CERES

With exiting peformaces:

7:10pm MAIN STAGE Shiralee.
7:30 SIDE STAGE Maori Dance Group and Sausal trditional Chilean Dance Group
8:00 MAIN Little G.
8:40 SIDE STAGE West Papua Dance Group.
9:00 MAIN STAGE Pataphysics.
9:40 SIDE STAGE Puharangi.
10:00 MAIN STAGE Culture Connect.

- Film Documentaries at the park, 7pm CERES Cafe area.-

Sunday October 26
CERES, Lee St., East Brunswick:
From 10:30am to 7pm - Plenary/ discussion spaces (Gatherings), workshops, entertainment (music, movies, theatre), traditional food, stalls, Art exhibition. Closing ceremony and Gathering resolutions 5-7pm.

Contacts and further information:
infogathering (at) latinlasnet.org
www.latinlasnet.org/gathering/freedom.html

General Information Marisol 0413 597 315
Program, and Logistic: Lucho 0400 914 944 or Wendy 0417 688562
Media and Communication: Natalie 0421 226 200 or Juliet 0413 893 485
Fundraising Sub-committee: Marisol 0413 597315
Volunteer Coordinator: Rodrigo 0414 970 418 or Juliet 0413 893 485
Stall Coordinator: Anna 0439 891 832
 

10/21/08

Aussies committed to growing Pacific trade

Kao,  this is bucket loads of Australian Gubbament bullshit, continuing to drive neo-liberal and free trade agendas in the Pacific is madness check this out :

The resulting debt crisis provided the means by which the Bretton Woods Institutions could further entrench themselves as the implementation agents of the globalisation process. The US Government chose to empower the institutions to lend to the indebted countries that desperately needed capital in order to remain financially solvent; but in order for countries to access these loans, the countries were required to implement the so-called "Washington Consensus" policy prescriptions: trade liberalisation, privatisation of the public services, deregulation of economic management and economic austerity measures. In this way, the institutions were authorised to become the managers of a crisis that they had helped to create

Haere Atu, get off Aboriginal Land and get out the Pacific

21/10/2008

http://www.fijilive.com/news_new/index.php/news/show_news/9827

The Australian Government says it is committed to promote stability and trade growth with Pacific island countries.

Australia’s Trade Minister, Simon Crean, said the government was working closely with its Pacific neighbours to strengthen their capacities to trade everything in the region and beyond.

Crean, in a statement to the second Biennial Sir Alan Westerman lecture in Australia, said his government was doing this through its ongoing commitment to fund regional education and training initiatives, including the recently announced Pacific seasonal worker pilot scheme.

He said it was clear that sustainable economic development in the region could not be achieved through development assistance alone.

“Our experience – like that of most other nations – shows that full participation in world markets is a powerful driver of domestic economic growth,” Crean said.

“At this time of global financial turmoil, strengthening the international trading system is essential – and we therefore need to galvanize our efforts in order to conclude the WTO Doha Round.

“However, Australia fully understands that trade liberalisation on its own is not enough to drive economic development.

“Many developing countries have not been, and are not now, in a position to take full advantage of the potential benefits of trade. They include some of our Pacific neighbours.”

Crean said Australia believed the greater regional economic integration would provide significant gains for Pacific island economies.

He highlighted the recent Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Niue where leaders agreed they undertook to work towards starting negotiations on the regional economic arrangement known as ‘PACER Plus’ at the next Forum Leaders meeting in 2009.

“Australia wants to help the Pacific engage more deeply with the regional economy, but to do so in a way that helps them take full advantage of the opportunities of greater market access,” Crean said.

“We will work with our Pacific neighbours to strengthen their capacities to trade within the region and beyond. We are committed to funding regional education and training initiatives, including through the recently announced Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme.

“Australia values its close, collaborative relationship with the countries and communities of the Pacific. This is our region, and we are determined to see it prosper and grow.”

Pacific states warned on EU deal

21/10/2008

The Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) says it’s not too late for Pacific ACP states to reconsider their stand on the Economic Partnership Agreement the EU wants them to sign.

The warning comes as Caribbean ACP state signed an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union (EU).

The agreement will, among other things, allow up-front access to EU markets for Caribbean exports.

PANG said “Pacific leaders can still avoid signing a disastrous deal like the EPA signed by the Caribbeans”.

The EU says partnership will assist Caribbean exporters meet EU and international standards.

Other key benefits of the EU-Caribbean EPA include:
•    Gradual opening up of Caribbean markets with extensive safeguards to protect local jobs and sensitive sectors;
•    Freeing up trade in the services sector to promote growth and investment;
•    Promotion of cooperation in innovation programmes;
•    Protection of labour and environment standards in the Caribbean;

According to the EU, the EPA will mean much closer cooperation and dialogue between the two regions on all these issues and is backed with substantial EU development aid. 

The EPA, which aims to strengthen ties between the two regions and promote regional integration in the Caribbean, is the first comprehensive North-South trade and development agreement in the global economy.

It includes a package of measures to stimulate trade, investment and innovation, and to promote sustainable development, build a regional market among Caribbean countries and help eliminate poverty.

PANG coordinator Maureen Penjueli said it was important Pacific ministers took a sobering lesson from the Caribbean experience.


"It contains virtually nothing for the Caribbean, but instead opens the Caribbean to European exports, businesses and service providers, and contains new rules on trade that have been rejected by developing countries at the WTO.”

This deal is not a recipe for economic partnership, but a menu to serve European economic interests, she said.

The EU is negotiating with 76 nations across Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (the ACP) all at once.

The Pacific Trade ministers meeting in Nadi continues.

JETHRO TULIN @ UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues NY


Speech by Jethro Tulin, Executive Officer,in Akali Tange Association, Highlands of Papua Nuigini on the environmentally destructive impacts of Barrick Gold Porgera Gold Mine, the human rights abuses, and extra judical killings.

G20 Defendants County Court

click for a larger image

10/20/08

Free trade warning

By WESLEY MORGAN
Monday, October 20, 2008
Pacific Trade Ministers are meeting today in Nadi, Fiji, to discuss a free trade deal that will shape trading relations with the European Union for decades to come.
Trade ministers from across the region will be deciding on a way forward in negotiations for a new Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU.
Just last week Caribbean leaders meeting in Barbados signed their own EPA with the EU amid warnings the deal could undermine development in the region.
For the past ten months Caribbean leaders have dragged their feet on signing the EPA which has been the subject of great controversy in Caribbean media and parliaments.
Academics, trade unions and civil society have called for a renegotiation of the deal to make it more 'development friendly' and the President of Guyana said he would only sign the deal if he was forced.
At the moment, only Guyana and Haiti have yet to sign the Caribbean EPA.
Pacific trade ministers, meeting today and tomorrow to discuss the Pacific's own EPA with the EU, have formally told the Europeans they are not interested in negotiating a deal that reflects the Caribbean one.
In June, the Pacific's chief trade negotiator, Hans Joachim Keil, penned a letter to the (then) EU Commissioner for Trade, Peter Mandelson, explaining that the Pacific wants an EPA containing an optional deal on goods, but does not want to negotiate on services, investment and intellectual property rights at this time.
This appeared to have been accepted by the EU.
Such a deal would satisfy the World Trade Organisation, but the EU is now demanding more from the Pacific.
During meetings held in Brussels last month, the EU refused to discuss areas of interest to the Pacific such as providing strong infant industry protection in the EPA until the Pacific agreed to begin negotiations on services and investment.
Maureen Penjueli, coordinator of the Pacific Network on Globalisation, said Pacific leaders can still avoid signing a "disastrous" deal like the EPA signed by the Caribbean.
She said it was important Pacific ministers took a sobering lesson from the Caribbean experience.
"The EPA signed last week is not about the sustainable development of small Caribbean developing countries," said Ms Penjueli.
"It contains virtually nothing for the Caribbean, but instead opens the Caribbean to European exports, businesses and service providers, and contains new rules on trade that have been rejected by developing countries at the WTO.
This deal is not a recipe for economic partnership, but a menu to serve European economic interests." Caribbean states tried to secure new access to the European market for Caribbean people to work in the EU as part of the "services" chapter in the agreement.
This was also an objective originally being sought by the Pacific, however, many in the Caribbean argue that the conditions the EU included in the Caribbean deal make it unworkable.
The Caribbean Cultural Industries Network has said that "on the face of what has been agreed Bob Marley and countless other top Caribbean artists would be 'ineligible' to work in Europe under the EPA" so restrictive are the conditions.
The Pacific has refused to negotiate on services because the EU has rejected Pacific proposals to allow more workers from the region into the EU.
But the Pacific Network on Globalisation argues that there are other reasons for the Pacific Trade Ministers to stand strong and seek a development deal.
"Negotiating a 'comprehensive EPA' such as the Caribbean's could lead to a range of problems," said Ms Penjueli.
"Such a deal would reduce Pacific countries' ability to regulate foreign investments in the public interest, could lead to an undermining of access to services (including essential services such as education and healthcare), and would restrict the ability to nurture Pacific businesses and industries.
"It would also impose a long list of expensive obligations on Pacific states."
Ms Penjueli said Pacific ACP trade ministers should defend the right to use a mixture of policy tools to promote development including the right to impose export taxes and nurture infant industries.
The EU had previously proposed that a "subgroup" of countries may wish to negotiate separately from the region, but this had been rejected by Pacific ministers.
"Pacific ministers from across the region should maintain regional solidarity and uphold the decision to suspend negotiations on services and investment," Ms Penjueli said.
"Our leaders have said before, and should always bear in mind, that it is better to walk away from a deal that undermines our development prospects than bow to EU pressure."
Notes:
* Pacific ACP Trade Ministers are meeting in Nadi, Fiji, at the Novotel Hotel (October 20-21).
* The EU is negotiating with 76 nations across Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (the ACP) all at once. Despite a deadline to complete negotiations before the end of 2007, most ACP nations resisted signing any kind of deal with the EU, while others have signed an interim-EPA because if they did not, Europe would have raised tariffs on their exports to the EU.
* In the Pacific, Fiji and PNG initialled interim-EPAs in late 2007 to avoid tariff hikes on tuna and sugar exports.
* The deal with the Caribbean is the first 'comprehensive' EPA the EU has managed to secure.
* Wesley Morgan is the Information, Education and Communications officer for the Pacific Network on Globalisation.

10/18/08

Pacific Ocean in peril

AM - Saturday, 18 October , 2008  08:18:00

Reporter: Jane Cowan

ELIZABETH JACKSON: If you thought the drought ravaging Australia was the worst manifestation of climate change, think again.

The Pacific Ocean lapping our shores is in trouble, according to an international group of scientists.

The marine biologists say the Pacific Ocean is facing ecological peril, with half of the sea's biodiversity now at risk.

Jane Cowan reports.

JANE COWAN: As a marine scientist and a yachtsman Dr Mark Orams has spent more time than most of us on the open sea.

MARK ORAMS: It's quite something to be on a boat thousands of miles from land. You, of course, are struck by the scale and the grandeur.

JANE COWAN: But through his work at Massey University in New Zealand Mark Orams has come to a slow realisation that all is not well with the largest ocean on the planet. There are worrying signs that weren't there just 15 years ago.

MARK ORAMS: From the moment you get off a small boat and go ashore, you note at the high water mark debris that's been brought ashore, plastic and other human-made products that have been broken down and washed over the hundreds and thousands of miles.

JANE COWAN: Dr Orams is one of 350 researchers from 30 countries who have signed a document they hope will be a wake-up call for the Pacific.

The Pacific Ocean Scientific Statement says that the combined threats of over-fishing, nutrient and sediment run-off, habitat destruction, and climate change are damaging the sea. Populations of some species of large tuna, sharks, and turtles are in decline.

And climate change is already creating pulses of warm water, hypoxic dead zones, and acidic conditions. The effects on small island communities dependent upon fisheries for their livelihoods are obvious.

But an ailing Pacific Ocean stands to affect everyone because of the sea's role in moderating climate change. It's a huge carbon sink, but if the water temperature warms significantly, it actually releases carbon rather than sucking it out of the atmosphere.

MARK ORAMS: They talk about tropical rainforests as being the lungs of the planet; well the ocean is almost the heartbeat.

JANE COWAN: Another signatory to the document is Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a coral reef biologist specialising in climate change and the director of the Centre for Marine Studies at the University of Queensland.

He says what's needed is an alliance of countries across the Pacific, with Australia playing a leading role.

OVE HOEGH-GULDBERG: Things like helping nations proclaim marine protected areas. How can we help nations fight the scourge of overfishing? There are many, many people in this area who depend on their marine resources for their daily food.

JANE COWAN: But Australia also has room to improve its own behaviour for the sake of the ocean.

OVE HOEGH-GULDBERG: We happen to be the world's highest emitters of CO2 per capita. That particular problem is going to become the most significant problem to the Pacific over the next 50 years ...

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Coral reef biologist Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg with Jane Cowan

10/17/08

Operation 8 depositions hearing over - 1 defendant free

 
 
The long depositions hearing for 18 of the the Operation 8 defendants has finally finished, with Judge Perkins today committing 17 of them to face trial. 
 
1 of the arrestees, Rongomai Bailey, had all charges against him dropped. [ Video interview with Bailey from NZ Herald ]

The other 17 arrestees will all face trial, possibly in late 2009 or early 2010. A large number of the charges against the remaining defendants have been dropped. While previously the 18 collectively faced 343 charges under the Arms Act, all charges relating to the camps alleged to have been held in November, April and August have been dropped, heavily reducing the total number of charges.

The 17 remaining arrestees have their next court date on February 17th, for a callover, however all have been excused from appearing provided they are represented by a lawyer.

During his decision, Judge Perkins stated that he felt that one of the main planks of the Crown's case would not hold up at trial. The Crown is attempting to argue that even if it can't show that people held specific weapons, that they were in the same area as the alleged weapons makes them a party to the possession, and therefore guilty of the charges under Section 66(2) of the Crimes Act. Judge Perkins stated that he did not think this was the case.

All 17 have also had their bail conditions altered, including being granted permission to go to Ruatoki this weekend to attend a commemoration for the 1 year anniversary of the raids. All have had their reporting to the police station reduced to once a fortnight as well, and some have had other bail conditions, including non-association orders, dropped.

The Auckland District Court had a large contingent of banner bearing, flag waving protesters outside it (and an even larger contingent of media!), showing that what was done to the arrestees and their communities has not been, and will never be, forgotten.
 

WHITE LIES II




You hypocritical colonial swine,
who the fuck are you,
to brand anyone,
a terrorist.
Centuries of systematic murder
of Indigenous Peoples globally
for land and wealth,
is the legacy you leave.
You fucked up moronic monster.

With sheer terror,
lustful greed
and killing in your heart,
you plundered the Earth.
You fucking murderous beasts,
raped our Mother
massacred her Children.
All in the name
of your perverted
colonial empire.

Your methods defy
any form of humanity.
Attempted genocide
on a worldwide scale.
Such evil ways
could only be from
the mind of a demon
bent on an orgy
of degradation and terror.

You built your histories
on WHITE LIES.
You are disgusting,
branding our Peoples
terrorists.
Yet another means
to continue the torture
of innocent People
fighting for a right
to be heard.

Despite your feeble attempts
we will overcome
your treachery
your dollar driven deceit
and we will emerge
strengthened by your weakness.
We are proud.
We are Black.
We are dignity
We are victorious.

by C. Burraga Gutya



10/16/08

Solidarity with October 15 Arrestees - Melbourne



On the first anniversary of the terror raids in Aotearoa, supporters in the Kulin nation again demonstrated outside the NZ consulate in Melbourne.

See Also

http://indymedia.org.nz/feature/display/71971/index.php

10/14/08

State Terror Raids NZ-One year later

Ka warea te ware

Ka area te Rangatira

Hongihongi te whewheia

Hongihongi te manehurangi

Kei au te Rangatiratanga



Ignorance is the oppressor

Vigilance is the liberator

Know the enemy

Know the destiny

Determine our own Destiny


Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Time: 1:00pm - 2:00pm

Location:New Zealand Settler Consulate
Street: 350 Collins Street
Melbourne, Australia


Sina Brown-Davis
Te Ata Tino Toa ki Ahiterairia

Nick Kelly
President of Wellington Tramways Union

Jasmine Freemantle
President of Vic Uni Student Union

Liz Thompson
Ongoing G20 Solidarity Network



Solidarity will also be given to Lex Wotton the alleged ringleader of the 2004 Palm Island riot who is facing trial in Brisbane.


“In the coming months, the case of the 'Urewera 18' will be heard in the District Court in Auckland. My great hope for this trial and for the future of Aotearoa New Zealand is that the raids will contribute to disrupting the false peace of this colonial state and radicalize people to struggle for justice and freedom.” (Valerie Morse)

Police attack Algonquin families


Police attack Algonquin families at peaceful blockade of highway 117 in northern Quebec from Barriere Lake Solidarity on Vimeo.

10/13/08

Website to showcase Pacific productions

Source

A website showing short films and programs from around the Pacific will be launched next month.

The New Zealand Herald reports the announcement of the online video broadcasting was made at the annual Pacific Islands Media Association New Zealand conference.

New Zealand-based Pacific Islander activist, Will 'Ilolahia, says young Pacific islanders will be able to submit their short films for broadcast on the website.

The Pima conference was also told of moves by TVNZ and TVWorks to introduce an exclusively Pacific channel on their networks.

Mililani Trask, Indigenous Peoples' Caucus Pacific Basin




Mililani Trask, Indigenous Peoples' Caucus Pacific Basin Representative International Coalition of NGOs and The International Forum on Globalization Denounces Canada , New Zealand and Australia For "HUMAN RIGHTS HYPOCRISY" IN LEADING THE OPPOSITION UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

See Also:

http://uriohau.blogspot.com/2007/04/indigenous-peoples-resistance-to.html


http://uriohau.blogspot.com/2007/07/global-warrior-visit-with-mililani.html

http://uriohau.blogspot.com/2007/11/indigenous-rights-in-pacific-basin.html

NZ Gov. Not Fit to Sit on UN Human Rights Council


10/11/08

Remember Ruatoki-Never forget NZ State Terror



Kia Ora nowaykiwi


Next Wednesday marks the first anniversary of the nationwide police raids on the homes of activists from the Tino Rangatiratanga (Maori Sovereignty), anti-war, environmental and anarchist movements. The majority of the arrested activists were held in prison for nearly a month. The entire town of Ruatoki was blockaded by heavily armed police. Men, women and children were locked in freezing cold sheds for hours without charge while their houses were trashed by police.


A number of events are happening around Aotearoa to mark the anniversary of this day.

Wellington
Saturday October 11, 11am-4pm. Garage sale and cakestall, followed by a social at the Freedom Shop to raise money for the October 15 support fund. [More]

Auckland
Saturday October 11. 10am-11am. Saturday Soapbox at the Otara Markets. Guest speakers will talk (10am to 11am) about last year’s October 15 police raids on activists and the Tuhoe community. Organised by the Workers Party. [More]

Wednesday October 15. 5:30pm meet in Aotea square for fun and games to contrast the trauma and oppression felt on this same date a year ago. Food Not Bombs will provide food, there will be music, and there will be mega twister!
Organised by October 15th Solidarity [More]

Ruatoki
15th, 16th, 17th, 18th October. Te Rewarewa Marae, Ruatoki, Te Urewera. Stalls, Music, Movies, Activities, Art Display, Launching CD, Guest Speakers, Whakawhiti Korero, Krumping Competition, Photographs of the Raids. [More]

Melbourne
Wednesday October 15. Protest outside NZ Consulate 1pm. [More]

Aucklan
d
Wednesday October 15 Fun and Games in Aotea Square [More]

See also

http://indigenist.blogspot.com/2007/10/over-500-hundred-march-against-police.html

http://uriohau.blogspot.com/2007/11/tuhoe-anger-loud-and-clear-over-police.html

http://uriohau.blogspot.com/2008/04/labour-party-humiliated-by-protest-at.html


10/10/08

Never Forget Never Surrender



Dedicated wih love to all the whanau


One Year On: Remember the October 15 State Terror Raids




Next Wednesday marks the first anniversary of the nationwide police raids on the homes of activists from the Tino Rangatiratanga (Maori Sovereignty), anti-war, environmental and anarchist movements. The majority of the arrested activists were held in prison for nearly a month. The entire town of Ruatoki was blockaded by heavily armed police. Men, women and children were locked in freezing cold sheds for hours without charge while their houses were trashed by police.


A number of events are happening around Aotearoa to mark the anniversary of this dark day.

Wellington
Saturday October 11, 11am-4pm. Garage sale and cakestall, followed by a social at the Freedom Shop to raise money for the October 15 support fund. [More]

Auckland
Saturday October 11. 10am-11am. Saturday Soapbox at the Otara Markets. Guest speakers will talk (10am to 11am) about last year’s October 15 police raids on activists and the Tuhoe community. Organised by the Workers Party. [More]

Ruatoki
15th, 16th, 17th, 18th October. Te Rewarewa Marae, Ruatoki, Te Urewera. Stalls, Music, Movies, Activities, Art Display, Launching CD, Guest Speakers, Whakawhiti Korero, Krumping Competition, Photographs of the Raids. [More]

Melbourne
Wednesday October 15. Protest outside NZ Consulate 1pm. [More]

See Also

https://www.aotearoa.maori.nz/v2/index.php

Hearing in Courtroom 8

http://www.october15thsolidarity.info/

10/9/08

Lex Wotton on Palm Island



Invited by the Indigenous Social Justice Association on August 10th 2008 Lex Wotton spoke in Melbourne prior to his trial relating to the riots in Palm Island. He was charged with inciting a riot and describes in his own words the events that day.

See Also:

Day three of Wotton trial begins with a splutter
NATIONAL October 8, 2008: Day three of the trial of Lex Wotton - the accused ringleader of the Palm Island riots - has begun with a splutter. Most of the morning has been taken up with legal argument about several aspects of the trial. When a witness finally did take the stand shortly before lunch, she only lasted several minutes before she was stood down for more legal argument, and amid concerns for her health.



Wotton trial underway; court watches videos of rallying cries from Palm Islanders
NATIONAL, October 8, 2008: The trial of Lex Wotton, the alleged ringleader of the 2004 Palm Island riots, has begun in Brisbane with jurors played video footage of a community grieving the loss of of one of its own.

10/8/08

Remember the 15th of October 2007 - One Year Later




Nau mai haere mai to the gathering in Ruatoki, Te Urewera to mark a year since the state raids into the Tuhoe nation. Venue: Te Rewarewa Marae, Ruatoki, Te Urewera

Date: 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th October 2008

Image

Stalls
Music
Movies
Activities
Art Display
Launching CD
Guest Speakers
Whakawhiti Korero
Krumping Competition
Photographs of the Raids
I AM by Raupatu Productions & MAU Productions
Contact Ruby Rameka for programme details on: (07) 3129 874
Imera: tari@hauora.tuhoe.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
OR
Sharon Kereopa at Te Rewarewa Marae for:
Stall Registrations & Media Inquiries
on (07) 3129 609
Imera: kereopa@clear.net.nzThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Testimony: Harmful Effects Of Guam's Colonization

Chamorus Address United Nations, Urge Need For Self-Determination

New York, October 7, 2008 – Today, a delegation of Chamorus testified in front of the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) in New York City on the question of Guam's continued colonization. For the first time in years, the Committee received testimony from a Guam elected official Senator Vicente Pangelinan prepared a testimony, read by Chamoru attorney Aileen Quan. The rest of the delegation included Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero of I Nasion Chamoru, Craig Santos Perez of Guåhan Indigenous Collective, and Michael A. Tun'cap of Famoksaiyan. The delegates discussed the cumulative adverse impacts of U.S. colonization and the current military build-up, highlighting such issues as environmental contamination, Chamoru displacement, alarming cancer rates, and the infrastructural strains expected from the island's unprecedented population boom—which will make the Chamoru people a minority group in our homeland. The Chamoru delegation will be meeting this week with the President of the General Assembly, UN Fourth Committee Chairman Jorge Arguello of Argentina, and world leaders from the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Virgin Islands to discuss ways to successfully expedite Guam's Chamoru self-determination process.

Guam Senator Vicente Lino Cabrera Pangelinan’s Testimony to the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee

Hafa Adai distinguished members of the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) and Chairman, H.E. Mr. Jorge Arguello,

Ginen y anti y espiritu yan y man fotna na taotao Guahan na hu presenta este na testimonu, yan u fan libre y taotao pagu. It is from the soul and the spirit of our ancestors that I present this testimony today for the liberation of the people today.

I am Vicente Lino Cabrera Pangelinan, a seven term Senator in the Guam Legislature here today to present my position as an elected representative of the people of Guam on the question of Guam before this body.

It is not only the right of the native inhabitants that this body is chartered with advancing, it is the protection of that right in an environment that allows for it to exercise in its purest form. The development of the island and the recent decisions by our administering authority dilutes our right to self-determination every single day that we are denied this right.

Our desire is clear and our policy reflected in the laws that we have enacted. I come before this body to petition for action and support from this body.

This year, my office re-vitalized the registration of our native inhabitants and their descendants to identify those in our homeland that are vested with this most basic of human rights, the right to self-determination. I will be seeking additional financial resources to accelerate this registration and will again petition our administrating authority to provide us with the financial and technical resources to advance this process to its ultimate conclusion; the conducting of a plebiscite and the vote by the people.

I request that this body lay before the representatives of our administrating authority to this most august body this petition and apply all its resources to move our administrating authority to comply with our request. We should not be made to wait for another day, for another day we do not have. Their actions and expansion of their military presence, the most massive military undertaking in the movement of military personnel since World War Two (these are their words) is making sure that if and when that day comes, it will not be a day that belongs to the colonized people of Guahan.

Our inalienable right to self-determination, as affirmed by General Resolutions 1514 and 1541, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples must be enforced by this body. We have sustained its ever threatening existence by actions of our administrating authority and we come before you to attest to this. The Fourth Committee must immediately enact the process of decolonization for Guåhan, home to a colonized people, the Chamorros. This process must include a fully funded and far-reaching education campaign informing all Chamorus from Guåhan of our right to self-determination and decolonization options.


I thank you again for the opportunity to present this most urgent petition in my capacity as an elected representative of the people of Guam.

/s/ Senator Vicente Lino Cabrera Pangelinan


I Nasion Chamoru

Testimony to the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee Re: Chamoru Self-Determination in Guåhan (Guam) October 7, 2008

Hafa Adai distinguished members of the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) and Chairman, H.E. Mr. Jorge Arguello,

Guahu si Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero. Dankolo na si yu’us ma’ase (thank you very much) for allowing me to address this very important international body. I am here on behalf of the Chamoru grassroots organization “I Nasion Chamoru,” which was established in1991 to proclaim the existence of the Chamoru people as a nation. I Nasion Chamoru celebrates the 4,000 year old history of the Chamoru people in our islands, and vows to protect the land, water, air, spirituality, language, culture and human rights of the Chamoru people. I Nasion Chamoru members have addressed this committee for several years, including our maga’haga (female leader) Debbie Quinata, who sends her regards.

I also represent the voices and opinions of my relatives and elders on Guåhan (Guam), who work daily to fight the continued colonization and militarization of our island. I carry the same message that has been presented to this committee for over two decades by Chamoru community leaders and elected officials like former Senator Hope Cristobal, former Congressman Robert Underwood and Ed Benavente. I fight the same fight that took the lives of Ron Rivera and former Senator and founder of I Nasion Chamoru Angel Santos. Our message has been loud and clear – the Chamoru people of Guåhan deserve to exercise our basic, inalienable human right to self-determination. But with only two years left in the second decade for the eradication of colonialism, sixty-three years after our administering power added Guåhan to the UN list of Non-Self Governing Territories, and almost fifty years after the UN passed General Assembly Resolutions 1514 (the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples) and 1541(which establishes the three options for self-determination), Guåhan remains colonized.

Now, more than ever, the work of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee is needed on Guåhan. In order to truly eradicate colonialism, this committee must work in the interests of the people of Guåhan and not crumble to the demands of our administering power, despite it’s domineering role in the United Nations. The United States’ claims that the Chamoru people’s right to self-determination is a domestic issue that should not involve the United Nations are hypocritical and distract this committee from taking action against the hyper-militarization and continued colonization of Guåhan. As I stand before you, the US is actively working to drastically expand their military and commercial presence on our island, creating a greater economic and social dependency that does not equip our people for decolonization, but rather pushes us devastatingly further away from it.

The US, which already occupies one-third of our island for military purposes, plans to move 17,000 Marines and their family members from Okinawa, Japan to Guåhan by 2014. In addition to those plans, the US Navy has begun to enhance its infrastructure, logistics capabilities, and waterfront facilities with the desire to support transient nuclear aircraft carriers, combat logistics force ships, submarines, surface combatants, and high-speed transport ships at their Naval Base. The US Air Force plans to develop a global intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance strike hub at Andersen Air Force Base by hosting various types of aircraft, such as fighters, bombers, tankers, and Global Hawk systems. And the Army plans to place a ballistic missile defense task force on our island.

As cited in the UN Guam Working Paper, David Bice, executive director of the office assigned to orchestrate the US military build-up, estimates that Guåhan will see an increase of 19,000 military personnel, 20,000 military family members and 20,000 foreign construction workers on the island in the next six years. As a result, Guåhan’s small population of 173,000 is expected to increase 34 percent with 59,000 more people. Such a population boom will make the 62,900 Chamorus on the island a minority group in our homeland, where we already struggle to keep our culture and language alive in light of imposed US educational standards that force us to learn English and US history over our native Chamoru tongue and historical understanding of ourselves. Part of the goal to militarize Guåhan is to reduce the US military’s burden on Japanese communities. Guåhan deserves the same respect. But because we remain in possession of the United States, our rights to create economic and social alternatives that free us from being dependent on the US, and help us maintain our culture and language, are being explicitly ignored. The US military’s burden on Guåhan’s communities will increase manifold. The military has already begun awarding construction contracts and building on military bases, despite the fact that no official plan has been funded or approved for this military build-up, and no official assessment of the environmental impacts has been completed. The US is conducting an Environmental Impact Study in a rushed two-year timeframe that does not include much participation or input from the island community. And in a preliminary version of that study, the US did not present evidence that the social, cultural or political implications of such a massive population boom and military build-up will be addressed. Both the US Department of Defense (DOD) and the Government of Guam face multiple challenges in trying to address the needs associated with this unprecedented military build-up, largely due to colossal uncertainties in the planning process. What is certain is that Guåhan is expected to shoulder the costs and strains of the tremendous infrastructural burden that is this military expansion. The Government of Guam reports that an influx of foreign workers will pull on local emergency care services, medical facilities, public utilities, transportation networks, and the availability of temporary housing. DOD and Government of Guam officials have said that the island’s infrastructure is inadequate to meet the increased demands of the military buildup. For example, the wastewater system serving the central part of the island, where a lot of development is already taking place, is at capacity. At a recent congressional hearing, the governor of Guåhan testified that our island’s government would need $6.1 billion to fund infrastructure upgrades. These costs are separate from the DOD’s estimated $15 billion need for plans within the military bases. Therefore, the United States will not cover the costs of Guåhan’s needed infrastructure upgrades, and our local government, which has a current deficit of over $511 million, will have to put our island in massive debt to meet the needs of our administering power.

According to United States law, Guåhan is a possession of the United States but not part of the United States. This is evidenced in the planning process for the US military build-up on Guåhan. There is no consultation with the people of Guåhan and no regard paid to the needs of our people. The governor, lieutenant governor and their staff have provided input in the planning process, but have no real decision-making power in one of the largest decisions ever made for the island that will have rippling effects on future generations of Chamorus.

The hyper-militarization of Guåhan is setting delays to the UN decolonization process. In remaining a Non Self-Governing Territory, Guåhan loses its right to fight the military build-up and the US can go about its plans with little-to-no opposition. I urge this committee to act immediately as the situation I’ve described to you is grave. Without action on Guåhan, the UN will have turned its back on colonization in the 21st century. The UN Secretary General himself recently declared there is no room for colonialism in 2008. I urge you to take heed of your mandate or else the Chamoru people will become extinct in our homeland.

The Fourth Committee must give top priority to the fulfillment of our inalienable right to self-determination, as affirmed by General Resolutions 1514 and 1541, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Fourth Committee must immediately enact the process of decolonization for Guåhan in lieu of the severe, irreversible impacts of US militarization. This process must include a fully funded and far-reaching education campaign informing all Chamorus from Guåhan of our right to self-determination and decolonization options. The Fourth Committee must thoroughly investigate the administering power’s non-compliance with its treaty obligations under the Charter of the United Nations to promote economic, social, and cultural well-being on Guåhan. The Fourth Committee must send UN representatives to the island within the next six months to asses the implications of US militarization plans on the decolonization of Guåhan, and the human rights implications of the cumulative impacts of the US military’s presence on our island. The Fourth Committee must contact Guåhan leaders and delegates who have presented testimony before this body, and UN funding must be allocated immediately to advance this study. We cannot rely on faulty impact studies conducted by the US, which are used to justify their actions rather than truly assess their impacts on our island. Finally, the Fourth Committee must comply with the recommendations of other UN agencies, especially the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which recently requested an expert seminar be held to examine the impact of the UN decolonization process on indigenous peoples of the Non Self-Governing Territories.

This committee must prioritize collaboration with Chamoru organizations and experts, such as I Nasion Chamoru, Famoksaiyan, Fuetsan Famalao’an and all those who have provided testimony in the past two decades.

I thank you again for hearing my testimony today, and hope that we can work together to ensure the inalienable human right to self-determination for the Chamoru people of Guåhan, and the survival of a Chamoru Nation in our homeland.

Saina Ma’ase,

Victoria-Lola Montecalvo Leon Guerrero I Nasion Chamoru

Testimony to the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee Re: Chamoru Self-Determination in Guåhan (Guam) October 7, 2008

Hafa Adai distinguished members of the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) and Chairman, H.E. Mr. Jorge Arguello,

My name is Craig Santos Perez and I’m a poet and native son of Guam. I represent the Guahan Indigenous Collective, a grassroots organization committed to keeping Chamoru culture alive through public education and artistic expression. I’m here to testify about the fangs of militarization and colonialism destroying the Chamoru people of Guam.

These fangs dig deep. During and immediately after World War Two, brown tree snakes invaded Guam as stowaways on U.S. naval cargo ships. By 1968, the snakes colonized the entire island, their population reaching a density of 13,000 per square mile. As a result, Guam’s seabirds, 10 of 13 endemic species of forest birds, 2 of 3 native mammals, and 6 of 10 native species of lizards have all gone extinct.

The U.S. plans to introduce—this time intentionally—a more familiar breed of predators to Guam: an estimated 19,000 military personnel and 20,000 of their dependants, along with numerous overseas businesses and 20,000 contract workers to support the military build-up. Add this to the 14,000 military personnel already on Guam, and that’s a combined total of 73,000—outnumbering the entire Chamoru population on Guam, which is roughly 62,900.

This hyper-militarization poses grave implications for our human right to self-determination because the U.S. currently asserts that its citizens—this transient population—have a “constitutional” right to vote in our plebiscite. Furthermore, this hyper-militarization (continuing a long history of militarization on Guam), will severely devastate our environmental, social, physical and cultural health. Since World War II, military dumping and nuclear testing has contaminated the Pacific with PCBs and radiation. In addition, PCBs and other military toxic waste have choked the breath out of the largest barrier reef system of Guam, poisoning fish and fishing grounds. As recently as July of this year, the USS Houston, a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine home-ported on Guam, leaked trace amounts of radioactivity into our waters.

The violation doesn’t end on our shores; the military also occupies and infects our ancestral lands. Currently, the U.S. military occupies a third of the island, and the impending build-up has interrupted the return of federal excess lands to original land-owners and threatens to claim more lands for live fire training. Not only has the U.S. continued to deprive us of our right to land, but they also pollute these lands. Eighty contaminated military dumpsites still exist on Guam. The now civilian Ordot landfill (a former World War Two military dumpsite) contains 17 toxic chemicals, including arsenic, lead, chromium, PCBs, and cyanide. The same 17 pollutants are also found in the landfills located over the island’s aquifer at Andersen Air Force Base in northern Guam.

While the U.S. military erodes the integrity of our land, expectations from the military build-up have more than doubled real estate prices and tripled home costs. Coupled with a struggling economy and rising living costs, many landless Chamorus have been economically coerced to leave the island and others have become homeless. Even our ancestors are being affected: a $30 million expansion of the Guam Hotel Okura has excavated an ancient Chamoru cemetery. More than 300 ancestral remains have already been unearthed.

While new condominiums, hotels, and high-end homes are beginning to rise, the sky is falling. In July 2007, an F/A-18C Hornet crashed in the waters around Guam during a training mission. This year, at least 3 other military aircrafts have crashed in or near Andersen Air Force Base.

U.S. colonial presence has not only damaged our bodies of land and water, but it’s deteriorated our physical bodies as well. The military used Guam as a decontamination site during its nuclear testing in the 1970s, which resulted in massive radiation and agent orange and purple exposure. High incidences of various kinds of cancer and neuro-degenerative diseases, such amyothrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinsonism-dementia, and Lytico-Botig plague the Chamoru people. Toxic chemicals have snaked into our bloodstream, causing multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, renal dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, liver dysfunction, deafness, blindness, epilepsy, seizures, arthritis, anemia, stillbirths, and infertility—all of which Chamorus disproportionately suffer. And because our mental health is woven to our physical health, Chamorus suffer dramatically high rates of incarceration, family violence, substance abuse, teenage suicides, and school drop-outs. The presence of the U.S. military has choked the breath out of our daughters and sons, mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers.

Like the last totot (Marianas Fruit-dove) on Guam being slowly swallowed by the brown tree snake, Chamorus are being disappeared. Diseases have killed most of our elders: only five percent of the island is over the age of 65. Young Chamorus are joining the U.S. military and dying in America’s wars at alarming rates. In 2005, four of the U.S. Army’s top twelve recruitment producers were based on Guam. In 2007, Guam ranked No. 1 for recruiting success in the Army National Guard's assessment of 54 states and territories. In the current war on terror, our killed-in-action rate is now five times the US national average. Since the war on terror began in 2001, 29 sons of Micronesia have died–17 of them from Guam.

In terms of population, Chamorus constituted 45 percent of Guam’s population in 1980; in 1990, 43 percent; in 2000, 37 percent. In devastating contrast, the planned influx of non-Chamorus will increase Guam’s overall population by about 30 percent, causing a 20-year population growth over the next five years. History repeats itself: more foreign snakes, fewer native birds.

The U.S. Pentagon is currently conducting an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)/Overseas Environmental Impact Statement (OEIS) for the build-up. However, the study is problematic in a number of ways, including the rushed speed of the study (a mere 2 years, with a 2009 completion date); the framing of the “impact” (which excludes many social, health, and environmental issues and focuses on economic “positives”); and the research methods (which relies on outdated data sets and “experts” composed mainly of the political and business elite). These Impact Statements are only invested in legitimizing the military build-up.

The door of the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism in the 21st Century will not be open for much longer. And even though powerful snakes block our passage, we are willing to struggle for our rights—but we need your help.

The Fourth Committee must give top priority to the fulfillment of our inalienable right to self-determination, as affirmed by General Resolutions 1514 and 1541, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The Fourth Committee must immediately enact the process of decolonization for Guam in lieu of the severe, irreversible impact of U.S. militarization. This process must include a fully funded and far-reaching education campaign informing all Chamorus from Guam of our right to self-determination and decolonization options.

The Fourth Committee must thoroughly investigate the administering power’s non-compliance with its treaty obligations under the Charter of the United Nations to promote economic, social, and cultural well-being on Guam

The Fourth Committee must send UN representatives to the island within the next six months to asses the implications of US militarization plans on the decolonization of Guam, and the human rights implications of the cumulative impacts of the US military’s presence on our island. The Fourth Committee must contact Guam leaders and delegates who have presented testimony before this body, and UN funding must be allocated immediately to advance this study. We cannot rely on faulty impact studies conducted by the US, which are used to justify their actions rather than truly assess their impacts on our island.

Finally, the Fourth Committee must comply with the recommendations of other UN agencies, especially the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which recently requested an expert seminar be held to examine the impact of the UN decolonization process on indigenous peoples of the Non Self-Governing Territories.

This committee must prioritize collaboration with Chamoru organizations and experts, such as I Nasion Chamoru, Famoksaiyan, Fuetsan Famalao’an and all those who have provided testimony in the past two decades.

Thank you for listening, and I hope we can continue to work towards achieving decolonization and self-determination for the indigenous Chamoru people of Guam.

Saina Ma’ase, Thank You, Craig Santos Perez (csperez06@gmail.com) Guahan Indigenous Collective

MICHAEL A. TUN’CAP, Ph.D.C, UC Berkeley and Famoksaiyan United Nations De-colonization 4th Committee Testimony Oct.7-8, 2008

Hafa Adai yan buenasi! (Hello and good day) Your Excellency Mr. Chairman Jorge Aguello, and distinguished members of the Fourth Committee: Dangkolu na si Yu’os ma’ase (sincere thank you) for your invitation to participate at this important testimony for the remainder of the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism in the 21st century.

I am Michael Anthony Tuncap, a Chamorro teacher and national community organizer from the University of California Berkeley. I was born in the village of Aniguak, Guam and I am the Great Grand Son of Ana Acfalle of Merizo and Ramona Terlaje of Aniguak. I am here as the Famoksaiyan Trustee to the Pacific Islander Commission at the University of California Berkeley. Famoksaiyan and the UC Pacific Islander Commission work together as an advisory council of indigenous scholars, teachers and community leaders from Guam, American Samoa, Tonga , the Philippines and Hawai’i. Our collective mission is to promote the human and civil rights of indigenous Pacific Islanders through education, community organizing and health advocacy. We have been brought together by the struggle to survive the recent military expansion and nuclear testing of our Pacific homeland.

The continued occupation of American military forces in Guam and the Northern Marianas Islands are rooted in a system of racial inequality between European Americans, Asian and Pacific settlers and the indigenous Chamorro people. Since our initial contact with the United States in 1898, massive pacification and military occupation have prevented the Chamoru people from exercising our inalienable right to self determination. My testimony today focuses on the structural relationship between racism and American military occupation in Guam and the Northern Mariana’s. Colonial ideas of racial and gendered superiority have shaped a long history of military violence and U.S economic security. American military aggression has shaped the public policies and immigration laws that led to the genocide of the Western frontier, legalized chattel slavery and the colonization of the Pacific. These militarized conditions are still prevalent in institutions that define American citizenship for many of our brothers and sisters in the Pacific and Caribbean colonies.

Over the last twenty years, the UN Fourth Committee on Decolonization has heard testimonies from former Guam Senator Hope Alvarez Cristobal, Sabina Perez, and many other indigenous world leaders. Their testimonies demonstrate the connection between racial ideologies and institutional discrimination resulting from American militarism. The history of American imperialism is deeply connected to a long history of exclusion, manifesting it in forms of violence both physical and social. We, the people of Guam, recognize that race continues to define the boundaries of the nation and the constituents of a militarized territory. Why are the American people in the Mariana’s denied the right to vote? Why are there American bases in Guam if the people lack political voting rights? What role has race played in the political relationship between the United States and their Chamoru territories? How can the United States ignore the United Nations Declaration for decolonization and the inalienable right of self determination for indigenous people?

“We the citizens for justice and peace on Guam voice our concern to the joint military exercises amid three aircraft carriers in the Pacific. We oppose the scheduled transfer of more then 7000 US Marines, and the increasing military presence post-September 11, 2001. We strongly believe that increased militarization on Guam is a violation of the human rights to self determination of the indigenous people. The United States is legally responsible under international law to protect the people of the island and the culture of the Chamorro people and that the intensified militarization of Guam and the Asia/Pacific region is a polarizing force that has put our people in grave danger rather than provide stability.”

The history of U.S militarism demonstrates the continued importance of race in determining national and international relations. The native and settle people of Guam have endured racial nationalism or exclusion based on continuous and discontinuous understandings of native Pacific Islanders. Social tensions rooted in the history of racism and struggle for minorities to attain “full citizenship.” Senator Cristobal and Sabina Perez have noted the complex ways that citizenship has been curtailed through the resurgence of U.S militarism.

The legacies of a racialized military occupation in Guam continue to inform a widely accepted belief in difference between the citizen and non-citizen. The colorblind framework of the United States as a ‘nation of immigrants’ ignores the complex differences in the histories and cultures of indigenous Micronesian people, especially in Guam. Military discourses conceal the xenophobic immigration policies and manifestations of U.S racial ideologies. As Chamorro scholars and policy makers pursue new ways of addressing racial problems of exclusion and citizenship, the question of self determination in Guam remains unanswered. If we, the people of Guam and the Northern Mariana’s Islands are to survive expanding U.S militarism,

The Fourth Committee must give top priority to the fulfillment of our inalienable right to self-determination, as affirmed by General Resolutions 1514 and 1541, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Fourth Committee must immediately enact the process of decolonization for Guåhan in lieu of the severe, irreversible impacts of US militarization. This process must include a fully funded and far-reaching education campaign informing all Chamorus from Guåhan of our right to self-determination and decolonization options. The Fourth Committee must thoroughly investigate the administering power’s non-compliance with its treaty obligations under the Charter of the United Nations to promote economic, social, and cultural well-being on Guåhan. The Fourth Committee must send UN representatives to the island within the next six months to asses the implications of US militarization plans on the decolonization of Guåhan, and the human rights implications of the cumulative impacts of the US military’s presence on our island. The Fourth Committee must contact Guåhan leaders and delegates who have presented testimony before this body, and UN funding must be allocated immediately to advance this study. We cannot rely on faulty impact studies conducted by the US, which are used to justify their actions rather than truly assess their impacts on our island. Finally, the Fourth Committee must comply with the recommendations of other UN agencies, especially the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which recently requested an expert seminar be held to examine the impact of the UN decolonization process on indigenous peoples of the Non Self-Governing Territories.

This committee must prioritize collaboration with Chamoru organizations and experts, such as I Nasion Chamoru, Famoksaiyan, Fuetsan Famalao’an and all those who have provided testimony in the past two decades.

IN TINA. IN TINA I MANMATAO. We offer praise to the matao IN TINA I MANMOFO'NA NA TAOTAO. We praise the first people

I MANMATAO I MANMOFO'NA NA TAOTAO. TA'HAHASSO I AMKO' NANÅ'AN I TAOTAO-TA. We remember The old name of our people

TA'HAHASSO I AMKO' NANÅ'AN. We remember The old name

TA'HAHASSO I MANFINE'NA NA NANÅ'AN-TA. We remember our first name.

TA' HAHASSO I MANFINE'NA I NANÅ'AN. We remember The first Name

I AMKO' NANÅ'AN I MANFINE'NA I NANÅ'AN I MANMATAO I MANMATAO I MANMOFO'NA NA TAOTAO I MATAO...

ENDS